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Palestinians walk next to a mural of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (right) in Gaza City on November 27. The body of Arafat was exhumed, eight years after his death, as part of an investigation into allegations he was poisoned.

(MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

Arafat, Still Terrorizing Israel

December 3, 2012 • From theTrumpet.com

Yasser Arafat has been dead and buried for eight years. Why dig up his body now?

On November 27, Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed from its burial place in Ramallah. The reason was so experts from France, Switzerland and Russia could collect samples in order to prove whether or not radiation poison was the cause of the former Palestine Liberation Organization leader’s death.

Why now—eight years after his death in a French hospital? Access was granted to Arafat’s body last week after tests in January on some of the clothes he wore the day of his death revealed high levels of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope. In July, following the tests showing high polonium levels, Al-Jazeera reported the findings in a documentary about the iconic Arab leader. This resulted in an outcry from Palestinians for an international inquiry. Arafat’s widow, Suha Arafat, lodged a formal legal complaint for murder. French authorities soon launched a formal inquiry.

The desire for answers may be understandable among Arafat’s family and supporters, but one has to question the timing and motivation of the investigation. Are authorities really trying to discover if he was assassinated, or is this just a stunt designed to stir up hatred toward Israel?

Speculation that Arafat was assassinated has swirled for years, even though conclusive evidence has never been discovered. (At the time of his death in 2004, his widow did not permit an autopsy to be done, so there were no definite answers as to the cause of Arafat’s sudden illness.) But a French website notes that a document confirms the military hospital in which Arafat died would have conducted a routine series of tests for radiation poisoning. While polonium 210 would not have been specifically tested for, the website states that “given the characteristics specific to polonium, it is very unlikely that the French specialists could have, in 2004, not identified its urinary presence if it was still present eight years later in his personal items.” The website goes on to cite reports issued a few days after Arafat’s death that suggested his symptoms more closely fit those of poisoning by toxic mushrooms, not polonium.

In short, there is much more evidence proving he was not poisoned than evidence proving he was poisoned. So, why go grave digging?

The motivation for this investigation is further called into question when you consider its timing. Polonium has an extremely short half-life—the time it takes for the radioactivity of an element to be reduced by half. Polonium has a half-life of just 138 days. Darcy Christen, spokesman for the Institute of Radiation Physics in Lausanne (the institute that discovered the polonium on Arafat’s belongings earlier this year), said, “Since President Arafat died, we’ve gone through 20 or 21 cycles, which is a lot. That means the polonium—if there was any originally—should be very low now.” Because of polonium’s quick decay, “Eight years is considered a limit to detect any traces of the deadly radioactive substance,” according to the Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics. Arafat died just over eight years ago. As Christen went on to say, “We have actually put a deadline to the end of November, saying that beyond that date, scientifically, [exhuming the body for samples] would not make much sense.” So they have exhumed the body at the very last moment that any evidence can be gained.

Why has no one decided to investigate this till now? Surely in the eight years since his death, these tests on his clothes could have been done.

The results of the tests will not be known for another three to four months, but already, the Palestinians have made up their minds on the issue. Gen. Tawfiq Tirawi, who heads the Palestinian investigation committee, said, “If the investigation yields negative results, that does not concern me. If I reach a deadlock, I will announce it. But for now, we will continue regardless of the results of the examinations.”

Tirawi’s admission reveals the real agenda behind this investigation. He also said, “We have evidence that President Arafat was assassinated. And we will continue with our investigation until we get all the relevant details.”

Many Palestinians believe Israel is responsible for killing Arafat. But if they already have evidence Arafat was assassinated, why do they need to exhume the body? Even if the tests do prove positive, it still would not prove who killed him—only how he was killed.

It’s not hard to see the true motive behind these tests. The Christian Science Monitor quoted Tirawi as saying, “We need proof in order to find those who are behind this assassination and take it to the icc,” the International Criminal Court.

Now, in order to take a case to the icc, an entity needs to be recognized as an “observer state” by the United Nations. Conveniently, the Palestinians obtained that status from the UN the same week that they exhumed Arafat’s body. Could it be that all the evidence pertaining to Arafat’s alleged assassination had been held back until a time in which it could be exploited? Is this investigation really about providing closure, or is it just a step in a larger plan to take Israel before the International Criminal Court for Arafat’s death?

The Palestinian Authority is following in the steps of its former leader and attacking Israel politically on the international scene. With this stunt, it is sullying Israel’s reputation by selling the narrative to the international community via the mainstream media that Israel—in this case, by supposedly assassinating Yasser Arafat, the Nobel-winning Palestinian leader—is actively and unfairly working to destroy the interests of the Palestinian people.

In the last half of Leviticus 26, God outlines the curses He would bring upon the nations of biblical Israel if they failed to obey Him. God specifically mentions that He would “appoint terror” over the people if they refused to obey. That is exactly what the State of Israel is facing today. The exhuming of Yasser Arafat is a stark reminder: Even from the grave, the former Palestinian leader is still bringing terror upon Israel.

God is looking for Israel to look to Him for deliverance. Sadly, Bible prophecy shows that Israel will not turn to God for help, but to Germany. Watch this investigation to see how it may help speed that along.
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